[Closed] Alex - Poker Challenge! -> Now on 5NL

These hours became months... ♦

Never mind better late than never

I didnt have the time to play alot of poker lately, August-September-October and mid November I was occupied with heavy studying, I have a degree waiting for me soon ♦

During the busy October and November I played some hands, cash games starting from 2NL with 40bb stacks (!!!) just to get some confidence/oil the poker machine by doing the basics over and over and over and over again. I played around 17k hands this way winning at a steady 4bb/100 hands rate.

Then on Dec 4 I changed to full stack and crushed 2NL for a steady 24bb/100 hands. This was expected, these guys call all ins with anything.
So having a full stack could only push me higher, as I was able to play pairs, suited connectors and some gappers from late position and limped pots. Also I could take better care of the limpers which are by themselves a money machine in micro stakes.

I made most of my money by raising preflop and then cbetting and valuebetting. These guys are very weak vs cbets. I have to say though that it surely was nice flopping the nut flush straight draw while having 5 fish in a pot lol.

Exploiting these pots with 4+ limpers was just the icing to the cake.

Here is the graph... As you can clearly see, changing to full stack from 40bb @ around 17.5k hands had a dramatic effect on my game

The last 3-4 days I changed level, now Im playing on 5NL.
I have played around 5k hands the last 3 days, and they have been really swingy.

People here play like maniacs, they are worse than on 2NL. They shove with nothing on a checked flop (!!!), they 4bet all in with 10-6, they even call a 3bet with 4-2!!!!!!

This last one cost me a stack, I was MP1 with Aces, UTG+1 raises (4bb stdr)I reraise to 12bb and BU flat calls.

Flop A - 4 -2, I check he bets, I raise he shoves I call... He shows me 4 fuckin 2 .... Offsuit! LOL!

Im +$10 at 5NL right now, graphs coming later or tomorrow. I also had to make some changes to my preflop game as these guys call alot and like a herd.

I did the standart 4+1 raise and had 3 limpers call, again and again.

Some other times a single guy with a VPIP of 73 and af of 0.7 called... disaster on a flop of K 7 4 with me having AJ and him... I dunno what.
These guys also raise randomly vs me, even with nothing, he could have 10-6 and reraise me on my cbet. He may well have K-4, 7-4, 7-7, Jacks, Tens, 2-2... Go figure. Why the hell they raise vs me and they are passive vs everyone else, do I have a target on my avatar or smthing?

Seriously everyone with VPIP 50+ and AF of <1 tried to bluff me. It was funny to say the least...

Thats what I think made my game so swingy, I couldnt put these idiots on a hand since they called with anything or they called like a herd.

Now I can isolate one poor limper and throw the maniacs out (thanks a lot 2p2 regs + nanonoko (!) for reviewing a couple hands and answering some questions) and once we are heads up he is finished (well unless he keeps calling and makes a runner runner flush that is ♦)

Or I just cash in the limped pot ♦ ♦ ♦

Cliff notes:
First 4.4k hands I was @ 0, constantly being from +4 to -4 back to +4 then -2 then +1 then -3...

Last 600-800 hands, after I altered my preflop game and I can play my regular game at last, I started crushing them. Up two stacks in 800 hands (this is my rate for 2NL full stack too).

After adjusting a little bit I have a feeling that these tables have more fish than 2NL.

2NL guys are weak-tight, these guys are huge callling stations. 2NL guys also defend their blinds (!!!) these do not seem to care

Alright, a new day today ♦

I started off with my oatmeal + honey + protein shake and a nice 10table session for about 30 minutes... which was fruitful , both for my bankroll but more for my poker education.

I made a little more than a BI ($6.35) to be exact and could have made a couple dollars more if I hadnt run to a guy who flopped nut straight and to a weird fish who must have got either a full house or he's an overagressive monkey. He is 50/19 !!!

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.02/$0.05 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)

Known players:
[tg]SB$4.92:///////;BB$6.00:///////;UTG2$6.91:///////;MP1$7.25:///////;MP2$12.50:///////;MP3 (Hero)$6.54:///////;CO$10.00:///////;BU$6.91:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A:d, J:d.
CO posts deadblind, UTG2 folds, MP1 calls $0.05, MP2 folds, Hero raises to $0.30, 4 folds, MP1 calls $0.25.

Flop: ($0.72) 3:h, 7:h, T:c (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $0.55, MP1 calls $0.55.

Turn: ($1.82) T:s (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks.

River: ($1.82) 2:s (2 players)
MP1 bets $2.00, Hero folds, MP1 gets uncalled bet back.

Final Pot: $1.82.

he has a river AF of 29% so I cant put him on hand with that pot bet.
He may have a set, he may fishbluff, or even maybe betting his pair of 8s.

This is a leak I have right now: cbetting vs monkeys.

I wanted to rep an overpair here, but this guy is 50/19 he cant even think. This kind of boards are not profitable to cbet vs this kind of opponent. I should be only valuebetting vs 50/19 calling stations.

So leveling is an issue sometimes for me at 5NL which WAS NOT in 2NL. This bluff was around 70% succesfull there, at least thats what my hem stats say. Maybe I was playing with more nits there since I didnt bother to table select.

I cant really understand this, on 2NL the tables really need more thinking while 5NL is full of 50/12 calling stations. Wow! No worries, more money to be made, less thinking needed ♦ !!!

Also saw the ad for the Greek Poker League @Stars, but im not interested in throwing money there atm. It should be easy competition as most Greek guys have recently just heard of poker and their poker education is non existant. Mb I throw the bonus $10 I get from the stellar rewards soon ( i need 100 more points which I can get easy till dec 31), there (its $3 for 2nd division BI).

Lastly I saw some free cardrunners vids and read a couple good threads on 2p2 to grow my poker edu. I have to put some volume, but I also have to do some studying and training to do for today, maybe later if im not burned out I ll put 500-800 hands.

Yesterday I devoted my rest poker hours to studying and finding leaks.

The first one I could easily spot was the way low and medium pocket pairs were played. I found some pretty nice articles about that, and I changed somewhat my game, will see in the next 5-10k hands how this will affect my game.

Today I did an 1 hour solid session, +$11 and Im back to my 2NL winning rate.

I now feel I have fully adjasted my game to this level and I will keep growing my bankroll at a steady rate :f_biggrin:!!!!

Here is the graph for 5NL.

gl with this m8 ♦

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.02/$0.05 No-Limit Hold'em (8 handed)

Known players:
[tg]MP2$5.00:///////;MP3$3.13:///////;CO$12.80:///////;BU$3.26:///////;SB$3.95:///////;BB (Hero)$5.00:///////;UTG2$7.39:///////;MP1$2.70:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is BB with K:s, 6:s.
UTG2 calls $0.05, 5 folds, SB calls $0.03, Hero checks.

Flop: ($0.15) 3:h, 6:c, 6:h (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.10, UTG2 raises to $0.20, SB folds, Hero raises to $0.85, UTG2 raises to $1.50, Hero raises to $5.05, UTG2 calls $3.45.

Turn: ($10.05) 2:c (2 players)

River: ($10.05) 9:d (2 players)

Final Pot: $10.05.
Results follow:

UTG2 shows a full-house, sixs full of nines(6:d 9:c).
Hero shows three of a kind, sixs(K:s 6:s).

UTG2 wins with a full-house, sixs full of nines(6:d 9:c).

damn!

oh well its huge +EV so no worries...

edit bad swing so far... I was up around +11, hit this guy, hit a flush vs boat on river, AK on flush board with an A vs set (i bet 3street as my King could give me nut flush), my cbets always getting raised by guys with af<0.8... FML

edit2: shit ran twice into aces with KK...

Originally posted by smile101
gl with this m8 ♦

can you tell this to my opponents too plz? ♦

Im sick of the bad beats today, im down 5BI... AA vs 10-5, KK vs Q-7 and some other sick staff... Like betting on flop and turn and this guy getting a backdoor straight on the river... to beat my set... couldnt guess what he was holding and I shoved...

bad day, Ill take some days off .

5nl

5NL and 2NL combined

Hey people Happy New Year!

I last time I posted I was in a downswing. I played some hands after that, around 2-2.5k.

The downswing stopped after the first 1k, and I started winning on my normal rate again, woohooo ♦

damn everytime I post here something terrible happens... ran my kings to aces 3 times in 1 hour

Update: I've been breaking even @ 5NL for 10k hands @ $+26 which is very frustrating... I made 3 times more rake than what I won during those 10k hands lol ♦

Current Bankroll: $199.31 (($50.00 from bonuses)) so true bankroll is 149. More than double my deposit. Alright!

I stopped playing 2NL since its too easy and it cant help me grow, plus the money I can get there is way too few to commit time. Its better to play 5NL and then study my game and fix some leaks.

What currently is a huge leak of mine is I dont know when to play for stacks. I mean normally I wouldnt play with TPTK or even two pairs, but on this level, contrary to 2NL (!!!!!), many players shove with air, tpgk or 2nd pair...

So on a borad of

A 3 7 rainbow,

when I face a reraise-all in, after I bet with my AK, many times Im clueless.
Same happens on

J 3 7

while Im holding aces

The guy could have a set, air, or A J on both boards.

Thats what keeps me getting stuck in the breakeven stretch. Im winning and losing stacks quite a bit on such conditions, and I start feeling uncomfortable about my hand reading skills which I never did so far.

This is by far my biggest fear in poker, playng vs a mixture of setminers, fish and maniacs on the same table. OMG!

you can take notes of set miners, fish, maniacs and such. you can write how they play their sets or how they overplay weak top pairs, etc.

you can also use colours to mark different players, for me it's:

green - fish, free money

orange - nit/set miner or a creative player (either way bad to play against because you don't want to enter mind battles with 1 specific opponent when you're mass multitabling - this can lead to changes in your overall play)

blue - calling station (so you know to bluff less such opponents and value bet more when you hit and they call)

I use more colours, but these are kinda the most crucial ones

Originally posted by Dendra
you can take notes of set miners, fish, maniacs and such. you can write how they play their sets or how they overplay weak top pairs, etc.

you can also use colours to mark different players, for me it's:

green - fish, free money

orange - nit/set miner or a creative player (either way bad to play against because you don't want to enter mind battles with 1 specific opponent when you're mass multitabling - this can lead to changes in your overall play)

blue - calling station (so you know to bluff less such opponents and value bet more when you hit and they call)

I use more colours, but these are kinda the most crucial ones

This means your tables look like pretty rainbows?

yep more or less (I use red, blue, dark blue, green, purple and yellow)

Thanks for the tip Dendra, I already wrote down some notes, but nothing that organized. Seems like a very good way to help me as Im multitabling (im playing 8-12 tables).

About other "dangerous" players ... In the last couple thousand hands I tend to avoid them till I get a monster and then I get them trapped.

Money wise im going good, since they havent figured out, but I wonder if this is good in the long term?

I mean we learn through difficult situations, and these are the situations that challenge me on 5NL... Everything else can be sumed up to just waiting to trap the fish and push the weak tights around.

Well I guess you cant read a maniac on 5NL l ♦ lol!

Update:

5NL

2NL+5NL

Really good graph there man ♦ Keep up the good work!